Zombies have been integral to horror games for decades now. Whether we’re doing a solo crawls through a haunted mansion, a fast-paced multiplayer kill-fest, or just side content in a first-person shooter series, the undead seem to be the one bad guy we can’t get enough of.

Last month, the ongoing legal battles over the rights of the Friday the 13th franchise caught up with the game, bringing its development to a halt. New content was “unfeasible now or in the future” due to the lawsuit, the game’s publisher said. Unlike Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th ain’t coming back. It’s a terribly…

Until Dawn is one of gaming’s greatest love letters to horror movies. It conforms to and subverts the slasher paradigm so well that it often feels like playing through a long-lost classic film from the sub-genre’s early-80s heyday. It’s creepy, atmospheric, gory, and occasionally goofy. The game is at its most…

For all the pea soup-laden razzle-dazzle of its most memorable moments, the 1973 film The Exorcist does not lend itself easily to a video game adaptation. On the surface, it’s about a 12-year-old girl possessed by the demon Pazuzu. At its core, however, it’s an exploration of science and religion, puberty, and man’s…

By the time I got to the elementary school in Silent Hill, I was so scared that I had to turn off my PlayStation. If those little grey children with their little baby butcher knives were too much for me to handle, well, frankly I’m surprised I didn’t suffer a full-on nervous breakdown the first time I encountered…

I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve seen more episodes of Murder, She Wrote than is healthy for someone under age 70. I’d like to think that the hours I’ve spent watching Jessica Fletcher do her thing have made me an expert in being a busybody and in solving crimes. How fortuitous, then, that the spooky thriller Dead…

I’ve played horror video games so scary they aged me beyond my years. I’ve watched horror movies so scary they had me hiding under a blanket like a child. But I’ve never seen a horror movie based on a video game that’s made me do either, and that’s a shame.

Horror movies and video games have been my passions since I was a wee bonnie lass, but I didn’t know they could coexist until the day in 1996 that I found Resident Evil on a shelf at Blockbuster Video. I was looking for something to rent for the weekend, and it seemed right up my alley: The words and pictures on the…

One of the most enduring character archetypes, one that adds a zesty burst of horror to any game, is the psychotic artist. You know the type: the dapper, urbane, well-spoken aesthete who values art above life and moans about critics who simply don’t understand their brilliant work. No one truly appreciates their…

If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a seasoned consumer of all things horror, it’s that situations are rarely as innocent as they seem. Dolls will spring to life and kill you. That big, beautiful house you got for a steal is haunted. You know how it goes. I let my guard down with Stardew Valley. “A gentle farming…

Tuesday’s update to Friday the 13th: The Game brings a new map, a new killer, and changes to item spawns. Pinehurst Youth Development Center and Jason impostor Roy Burns both hail from the controversial Part V: A New Beginning. Beware Roy’s garden shears...and those damn enchiladas.

I’ve slaughtered countless camp counselors in Friday the 13th. I ate truly disgusting stew in Resident Evil 7. But the most brutal game I’ve played so far this year is Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut, an isometric puzzle game released for PC and mobile in 2016 and recently released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

A patch for Friday the 13th rolled out earlier this week that fixes bugs and adds new content, including playable survivor Fox, the feisty biker from Part III. Changes have been made to Tommy Jarvis “to emphasize [his] hero attributes and goals” and encourage players returning as Tommy to help counselors in need.

The overlap of horror movie lovers and video game lovers is undoubtedly substantial, so it’s no surprise that filmmakers have repeatedly tried to appeal to that demographic. The results often range from hilariously wrong to mildly insulting, to the point where you’re not sure the creators even know what video games are…

The Golden Age of survival horror games began in the mid-90s and ran for about a decade. Despite their often rudimentary graphics and dodgy gameplay, series like Resident Evil and Silent Hill explored B-movies and psychological horror in ways previously unfamiliar to gamers. Pick any “all-time best horror games” list,…

When we meet Sebastian Castellanos at the beginning of The Evil Within 2, he’s a broken man. The mind-bending events of the previous installment fractured his psyche. He blames himself for not being able to save his daughter Lily from a house fire, and his wife left him. He’s been booted from the police force and he…

For fans of all things Jason Voorhees, any Friday the 13th on the calendar is a time for celebration, and today is no exception. With a physical release on shelves today and free DLC for all players, the studio behind Friday the 13th: The Game is helping ensure that the campfires around Crystal Lake are burning bright.

What’s a fan of horror games to do when the final boss is vanquished and the credits roll but you’re not ready to say goodbye? What if you want the scary experience but you’re too tired to hold a controller and push buttons? The answer, my friends, lies in another form of entertainment: film. If you’re looking to…